The GamesCOm demo for Star Citizen ahead of the release of alpha version 2.5 is a mind blowing visual trip. It features a number of different vehicles, some FPS gameplay, some high-quality questing and some co-op. There’s a lot to talk about and all of it is contained within an hour long video demo.

You can check out the hour long demonstration below.

They examine the hyperdrive capabilities, heading to a planet and going from the space port to the surface. They manage to play around by landing on the planet surface just to show that you can land anywhere on a planet.

There was a little trouble getting one of the passengers back into the ship after goofing around on the surface. It was a nice demonstration of being able to land anywhere on the planet and that you need to be careful where you land so you don’t lose access to your ship.

They eventually head into the base, which Roberts described as being similar to Mos Eisley. So long as you don’t cause trouble there won’t be trouble.

The base for Levski is very impressive. Players can take an elevator down into the lower parts of the base. It’s very, very impressive.

The fidelity of the base isn’t just some procedurally generated base, either. There’s a lot of intricate, artistic detail put into the design of the base that feels like an actual place.

The synthetic soundtrack from Pedro Macedo Camacho echoes through as the duo explored the Levski planetary base. It’s very slick.

Chris Roberts explains that in future builds there will be trading and shops that can be interacted with for each location. For now the shops were there just for show.

They end up taking on a mission that sends them into dangerous territory, but before that we get to see how the game seamlessly transitions from planet surface to space with no loading screens. I know it’s become repetitive at this point, but I really do have to state that it looks very impressive.

There have been a number of games with planet to space seamless transitioning without load screens, such as No Man’s Sky and Empyrion, but the fidelity here in Star Citizen is pretty crazy. If the facial animations and the interaction sequences stay consistent from what we see in the GamesCom demo then everything will be extremely cinematic.

During the mission we finally get to see the transitions between flight, questing, combat and EVA exploration.

After battling some space pirates there’s a sequence where one of the players exits from the ship and flies towards a damaged Starfarer. Inside the ship it turns into a bit of a shooter-thriller in zero gravity, showing some small elements of what was supposed to be in Star Marine last year. The atmosphere is palpably engrossing.

While the game is still far from finished, the GamesCom demo finally gives us a view of what the game should look like upon completion.

Alpha version 2.5 is supposedly due for release next week, according to Blues. Version 2.7 is supposedly scheduled for September, with 3.0 due in October.

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Billy has been rustling Jimmies for years covering video games, technology and digital trends within the electronics entertainment space. The GJP cried and their tears became his milkshake. Need to get in touch? Try the Contact Page.

Okay thanks for the clarification. Doesn’t sound like they have concrete dates yet for the version releases.

Ken

They never do. Their target is to put out one major update per month, and they’ve been pretty regular since they started doing that. Though, sometimes they hit snags which have pushed an update to two months.

Domaldel

They do their best to hit monthly version releases (with minor patches in between fixing bugs and stuff) but game development is game development and what we see is what we get, warts and all so sometimes there’s delays.

NickW

Star Citizen has a Free Fly week this week around GamesCom. You can download the game for free and play the latest build.

And what you don’t mention is that this is a referral code giving you some benefits too as well as the person using the code…
Nothing wrong in sharing the referral code, but you should be up front with it I feel…

For anyone out there want to use a random code instead using the reddit star citizen referral code randomizer found here:

The code gives you who use it a bit of in game cash, but it also gives the person whose code you use benefits that can include things like weapons and even ships depending on the number of people using the code.

If you happen to have a few friends and you plan to join the game you could make your own account and find your own referral code and ask them to use that code instead so *you* can get the benefit for inviting your friends instead of NickW here or me.

NickW

Well, yes, that’s the nature of a referral code. As with all referral codes. It’s also explained when you enlist. Thanks for explaining it in excruciating detail though.

Domaldel

You’re welcome. 😉

scemar

so what are the odds, what if the game actually delivers

Domaldel

Quite high I’d say.
But don’t expect a great gaming experience till the patch he mentioned at the end of the year as there’s currently some major network issues…
On the other hand if you don’t mind being an alpha tester and genuinely helping out with the development of the game there’s a ton of stuff to test out already.

Domaldel

Here is a video of a streamer who probably had quite a typical experience with the game.
I helped him out with his third stream, the two ones at the end.
Anyway you might like his stream. =)

Horrorstorm

That does look quite impressive. I really wasn’t sure about this one, but it looks like things are working out.